You would think that as calendula infused oils are the base of my soap, lotion bars, lip balm and cream that I would be very invested in the rows of flowers Tiny House Farm is growing. This year, not so much.

Behind all those weeds is my calendula. My poor, neglected calendula. We had covered the rows with a tarp to kill off the weeds and that part worked out great. When it came time to sow the calendula seeds, I had to wait for the right forecast. The rain we had in this area was hit and miss over the summer. I waited for a clear day with two days of upcoming rain. Sadly, the Weather Channel let me down. We pulled the tarp off and I scattered the seeds and then no rain. For a week. I took a quick look at my rows during every farm trip, but the plants were slow to grow and soon the weeds took over. And the real neglect started.

I could tell myself that I was busy working on the farm books and the masks and daily life, but I simply did not get out to the farm. Except when I went along with Ron to work with the shiitake logs. Which turned out to be a bad thing for me. While moving logs from the soaking tank into the wagon, I tripped on a root, fell forward and hit the wagon rail with the log I was holding. Lost my grip and the damn thing landed , cut side down, full force on the right foot. Good lord, the pain. But I managed to hold it together and we got all the logs moved and the two of us out to the road. I spent the next week or so walking gingerly around the house and trying to get my foot into a comfortable position for sleeping. It was painful putting on shoes and my work boots were the worst. But no long term damage, so I was lucky.

Here are our lovely yellow calendula flowers. Trapped and hidden by the straw and other assorted weeds. If I was going to salvage any of it, I needed to get started. Weeding, really does not make me happy.

But now there was no choice. I simply had to work on this. If I am going to have any calendula blossoms to dry and seeds to save for next year, the weeds had to go. So when Ron headed out to THF on a bright September Sunday for mushroom log soaking and I went out to weed. It got hot quickly so I swiped Ron’s work umbrella and kept working. My goal was to get one row done. Remember these rows are 60 feet long and 4 feet wide. No easy task. By 330 I was just about done with one row and was exhausted. Tomorrow was another day.

Labor Day actually, and I had the day off. So while I yanked more weeds, Ron harvested and cleaned shiitakes. It was a good day for working outside. It was windy and while I lost count of the number of times I had to chase down my hat, it was easier to work

One row and part of a second have been de-weeded. So many weeds. There was straw, dandelions, thistles and several different types of vine weeds. It wrapped itself around everything. Sometimes that came in handy by letting me grab hold of the vine and pulled out a big chunk of weeds. Also discovered we had Chinese lanterns growing in the mix too. They brought back memories of my grandmother’s house in Herkimer, NY. She had Chinese lanterns in her yard for years. Not sure if I will let them stay though. They can easily overwhelm an area. And I want and need my calendula to be the focus of this side of our field. There will be no harvesting for me if I cannot even get to the plants.

I asked Ron to brush hog the ends of each row and the far right row for me. There was no calendula growing there and I wanted to see what I just how much more I needed to get done. There was no weeding done during the week. This is the type of job that needs to start early in the morning if you have any hope of making headway. I conned our Jo into coming out with me the next Saturday and her help made a huge difference. Lessons learned – I really should have gotten the straw pulled out while it was still green. Once it was fully dried, the seeds flew everywhere when yanked. I foresee more straw in my future.

My poor calendula patch. Most of the weeds are gone but it looks very sad and forlorn. The last thing I did was sweep between the rows. Getting the last of the weeds and, hopefully most of the weed seeds further away from the planted rows. Then I took flags and marked the bare patches where I needed to make sure seeds are scattered next spring.

I then started with the deadheading process. For those not in the know, this is the term for snipping off the actual blossom. Doing this results in more flowers growing and allows me to dry those picked for later use in my products. I also harvested seeds that I will cast around the next spring. Left most of them to fall where they may. Ron wants me to lay down weed cloth and grow the plants in nice neat rows. That is not for me. I much prefer the happenstance of nature. If only I could get that result without the weeds.

Collecting the seeds is easy enough. Once they have fully dried on plant, they fall off into your hand when you tug on them. I store them in paper bags for next year. Drying the calendula flowers is a bit more complicated. You can gently pull the petals off each flower before laying them onto your drying rack. Or dry the whole flower, trying to set them upside down in the process. Either way, your fingers are going to get sticky in the process. I did a combination of both and have decided that removing the petals before drying is the better way. More work up front, but the petals dry more evenly. And once they are dry, the only thing you have to do is collect them all for storage in a large glass jar.

As usual, I made it more difficult for myself. My set of drying racks was in shed at THF and I had just left them alone to dry. As the weather got colder, I needed to bring the dried calendula back to our house. Was not sure if colder temps would effect it at all, but I was not going to take the chance. I didn’t think the logistics through and failed to bring a container for it, so I had to collapse the whole rack and bring it home as is. The dried petals had to be pulled off and transferred to a smaller tray covered with mesh. Needed to be sure everything was fully dry. In the process, I managed to dump a good chunk of the petals on the floor. I didn’t take a photo of that as it was just too depressing. Carefully picked it all up, petal by petal and let them sit for another week before I put all of it in a jar for long term storage. Or start infusing olive oil with it. If I do things right next year, I will have even more calendula to work with. The long term goal is to have enough to dry and then sell to others. That is going to be a lot of calendula. What I harvested this year doesn’t even fill a quart sized canning jar and is just over 1/2 an ounce by weight. I may have to plan holding a calendula harvesting event next year.